Real Conversations with Jacob Young

In this episode, Jacob sits down with actor, writer and award-winning director Jason Cook.

Cook portrayed Shawn-Douglas Brady on Days of Our Lives from October 1999 and was very popular with fans, especially in Shawn's relationship with Belle Black. Cook elected to leave the show when his contract with Days of Our Lives expired in September 2006. On May 28, 2015, it was announced that he would reprise the role for the show's 50th anniversary in the fall of 2015.

While on the show, Cook turned his attention to writing and directing films, making the indie film The Making of Triassic Park and later Social Security Guard, starring General Hospital co-star John Ingle. He left the show to pursue production full-time on Numb To Life, a documentary exploring pharmaceutical drug abuse, as his first feature documentary.

On April 23, 2008, it was announced that Cook would be returning to Daytime TV on General Hospital as new character Matt Hunter. His first appearance was on June 26,2008.

Cook elected to leave General Hospital at the end of his contract to once again return to projects behind the camera. His first project was a philanthropic reality show co-produced with the Mandela family titled LifeCHANGE. This was followed up with the production of State of Bacon, a mockumentary surrounding the largest Bacon festival in the world, held yearly in Des Moines, Iowa.

In 2012, he participated in Fox's dating game show The Choice and portrayed 2014 James Thomas in Dean Jones' mystery thriller film Dark Awakening. opposite Lance Henriksen and Valerie Azlynn.

In 2018 he wrote, produced, and directed The Creatress, a film about a writer following up a bestselling debut novel starring Lindy Booth, Peter Bogdanovich, and Fran Drescher.

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This week, Jacob visits with Hollywood legend and actor, John James.

James is a veteran of daytime soaps, first appearing in Search for Tomorrow in the late 1970s. In 1981 he won the role of Jeff Colby in Dynasty, appearing in the very first episode, "Oil", and remaining on the soap opera until the final episode, Catch 22 in 1989. James played the same role in The Colbys between 1985 and 1987, and one last time in the 1991 TV movie, Dynasty: The Reunion.

James was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for his role in Dynasty in 1985 and appeared at the 1986 ceremony. The Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film went to Edward James Olmos.

James returned to the genre playing Rick Decker on As the World Turns in 2003–04. In May 2006, he was cast in the role of Dr. Jeff Martin (the first husband of Erica Kane played by series star Susan Lucci) on the ABC daytime soap opera All My Children. He began airing the following month. On July 15, 2008, James returned to As the World Turns, reprising the role of demented Dr. Rick Decker.

In film, James starred in Icebreaker (2000) with Sean Astin, Bruce Campbell, and Stacy Keach; in The Cursed aka Peril (2001) with Morgan Fairchild and Michael Pare; in Lightning: Fire from the Sky (2001) with Jesse Eisenberg, Stacy Keach and John Schneider and in Chronology (2015) with William Baldwin and Danny Trejo.

He produced and starred in Illegal Aliens (2007). All four movies were directed by David Giancola. In 2012, James starred in the Giancola documentary, Addicted to Fame (2012), about the making of their film Illegal Aliens.

In 2016, James produced and starred in another Giancola's film, the sci-fi action-adventure, Axcellerator. This film reunited him with The Colbys co-star Maxwell Caulfield while James' daughter Laura played one of the roles.

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This week Jacob visits with actor Nicholas King.

Nicholas King was born on January 16, 1989 in Laguna Beach, California, USA. He is known for his work on Sinister (2012), Midnight Special (2016) and Fantastic Four (2015).

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This week Jacob sits down with actor and friend, Gregory Zarian.

Gregory Zarian is an acclaimed actor, model and host, who was recently seen in a recurring role on the third season of the hit HBO series "Westworld" as 'Reed Phillips'. In May 2020, Zarian was Nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award in the category "Outstanding Performance by a supporting Actor in a Digital Drama" for his role on and the Emmy-winning web series, "Venice the Series." Gregory portrays 'Detective Nick Pfander' in season five of the series, and he portrays Nick's twin brother 'Nate Pfander' in the current sixth season, for which he was nominated.

Gregory will next be seen in film "86 Melrose Avenue", for which he won the Best Supporting Actor Award in a Feature Film at Overcome Film Festival in October 2020. Gregory has a recurring role on the first and current second season of "The Family Business" (BET+), and co-stars in the recently released dramatic thriller "Painter", available on Apple TV. He will also appear in the upcoming comedic web series "Outdated", which was the Official Selection Cinema Diverse Palm Springs International LGBTQ+ Film Festival 2020.

Born and raised in Glendale, California, Gregory was working at a high-end department store as a sales clerk when he was discovered and cast in a recurring role on the soap opera "Days of Our Lives." After his success on the soap, he modeled internationally in Paris, Milan and Germany before returning to the States to continue modeling and resume his passion for acting. Gregory has also reoccurred on "General Hospital" as fan-favorite, Julius, and has guest-starred on numerous television series such as "Counterpart," "Criminal Minds," "Bones," "Castle," "Revenge", "Entourage," and "The Mentalist." Some of his film credits include "From Zero to I Love You," "Woman on the Edge," Carl Weber's "The Choir Director," "Hot Guys With Guns," and the multi-award-winning "Reconciliation." He has also appeared in over 100 commercials. Gregory is an anti-bullying advocate and an active supporter of the organizations The Trevor Project and Project Angel Food.

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This week, Jacob sits down with fellow actor Adam Jacobs.

Adam’s big break came with the opportunity to play “Marius” in the national tour of Les Miserables.  This job led to him being cast in the Broadway revival and his subsequent Broadway debut.  Within the short 14 months that the show played the Broadhurst Theater, he had the benefit of working with many Broadway veterans including Lea Salonga, Judy Kuhn, Gary Beach, Daphne-Rubin Vega, Norm Lewis, Ann Harada, Aaron Lazar (seen in photo), among many others.

Since Les Miserables, he has journeyed from the islands of Mamma Mia! to the African pridelands of The Lion King.  He’s gone from the tropics of Once On This Island to the Arabian deserts of Aladdin. His mixed ethnicity has allowed him to play varied roles, and he thanks his parents for their whole-hearted encouragement to pursue a life in the arts.

Adam, his wife Kelly, and their sons Jack and Alex now make their home in Chicago. After touring for two years with the first national tour of Disney’s Mary Poppins as a dance captain and swing, Kelly happily joined the Broadway company and stayed with it until its closing in 2013.

Adam’s younger sister, Arielle Jacobs, is also a well-known actress who has had success in theater. After playing “Gabriella” in the national tour of Disney’s High School Musical, she starred as “Nina” in the Broadway production and first national tour of In The Heights, played “Nessarose” in the Broadway company of Wicked, and is currently playing “Jasmine” in Aladdin at the New Amsterdam Theater.

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This week Jacob visits with one of his best friends, actor Aiden Turner.

Turner is known for his role as Aidan Devane on All My Children, which he played from 6 June 2002 until he left AMC on 21 December 2009. He was nominated for a Daytime Emmy in 2003 for Outstanding Younger Actor in All My Children. He also appeared in Geri Halliwell's Bag It Up music video. Turner left the role of Aidan Devane in May 2004 during which time the role was recast with actor Tom Archdeacon. Turner returned to the show a few months later and portrayed Devane until Turner left AMC on 21 December 2009.

On 1 March 2010, it was announced that Turner would be a celebrity contestant on Dancing with the Stars for the tenth season. He was partnered with Edyta Sliwinska who competed in her tenth season. The season premiered on 22 March 2010.[2] Aiden was eliminated in week 4 of Season 10.

After All My Children, Turner guest-starred on Single Ladies, NCIS: Los Angeles and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.. In 2014, he was cast in the Oprah Winfrey Network series If Loving You Is Wrong.

Along with acting Turner has found a successful career in voiceover, modeling and commercial work. He appeared in a CoverGirl commercial with Molly Sims. Aiden was also a model for Burberry, French Connection, Polo Ralph Lauren, among others and has appeared in commercials for Diet Coke, Head & Shoulders, Mercedes, Dodge Dart, Clorox, Chevrolet. He was the voice of Jaguar for many years.

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This week Jacob visits with Hollywood movie producer Rick Benattar. Rick is responsible for bringing some huge hits to the big screen like, Will Smith's Gemini Man, Real Steel, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen and many more. 

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This week Jacob catches up with his longtime friend and co-star Katherine Kelly Lang.

In 1987, Lang was offered the role of blue-collar Brooke Logan on the CBS soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful for the CBS Daytime programming block, and has been an integral part of the program ever since. Her love affair with Ridge Forrester (originally played by Ronn Moss, and since 2013 by Thorsten Kaye) has been a key story arc for more than 30 years, and a love triangle among Brooke, Ridge and Taylor (Hunter Tylo) stretched across an entire decade. The show's 5,000th episode included only the four core characters: Brooke, Ridge, Stephanie and Eric. As of February 2015, Lang is one of only two actors to be on The Bold and the Beautiful throughout the series. The other is John McCook, who portrays Eric Forrester.

In 1999, she appeared as Brooke in The Young and the Restless, interacting with Eric Braeden (Victor), Peter Bergman (Jack), and Eileen Davidson (Ashley). Lang previously appeared on The Young and the Restless as Gretchen in 1981, and returned to the soap, for a brief stint, in July 2007. Her work as Brooke has been recognized with seven Soap Opera Digest Award nominations, beginning in 1991 and most recently in 2005.

In 2016, Lang made a special guest appearance as herself in the Australian soap opera Neighbours on 10 Peach. In January 2019, she returned to Australian television as a contestant on I'm a Celebrity...Get Me Out of Here! for season 5. In October 2019 she made a guest appearance on the Greek soap opera "8 lexeis" for SKAI TV. She played Grace Heart, a reporter who traveled from New York, to Corfu, Greece, only that was not her true identity!

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This week Jacob sits down with Emmy-Nominated actress, Alicia Minshew.

In November 2001, Minshew landed the role of Kendall Hart on the daytime drama All My Children. She first stepped into the role in December 2001, after the character's seven-year absence from the soap opera following the exit of Sarah Michelle Gellar, who had previously portrayed the character. Debuting onscreen in the January 8, 2002 episode, Minshew played the role of Kendall until the series finale in September 23, 2011.

In 2004 and 2005, Minshew portrayed Kendall in brief appearances on the daytime drama One Life to Live as part of a baby-swap storyline.

In 2009, Minshew gave birth to her first child and went on maternity leave right as All My Children relocated production to Los Angeles.

In August 2012, Minshew was cast as the lead in the film, Desires of the Heart which began filming in Savannah, Georgia. In the new film directed by James Kicklighter, Minshew plays a Georgia artist who falls in love with an Indian psychiatrist and follows him back to his homeland, where his parents have arranged a marriage with another woman.

From 2013–14, Minshew played Angelica Caruso on the soap opera web series Tainted Dreams. In 2014, Minshew played New York City reporter Sara Preston in the soap opera web series Beacon Hill. She was nominated for a 2015 Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Performer in a New Approaches Drama Series for the role.

In 2016, Alicia Minshew wrapped taping of the musical TV faith-based series "Wholly Broken." The actress plays Kim and described the character as, "The character I play, however, is not a stretch from my soap days! She may be yet another one you love to hate. I play Kim, the self-absorbed, headstrong, somewhat unhappy lawyer wife of Tom (the lead character). There is some serious conflict in their life and marriage. You will see how it all plays out. It was a fun role to play. I had a blast with Tom.

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This week, Jacob visits with actress Nadia Bjorlin.

Bjorlin's first major role was in April 1999 as Chloe Lane in the soap opera Days of Our Lives. In late 1999, she appeared as a go-go dancer in the music video for Ricky Martin's song Shake Your Bon-Bon.

Bjorlin left Days in June 2003 to concentrate on her singing career but returned later in December 2003. In September 2005, Bjorlin left Days of our Lives again and joined the cast of the UPN series Sex, Love & Secrets. The show was canceled by the network, but Bjorlin continued to make guest appearances on television series such as Jake in Progress and Out of Practice.

Bjorlin appeared in the 2007 independent feature film If I Had Known I Was a Genius, starring Markus Redmond, Whoopi Goldberg, Sharon Stone, and Tara Reid. The film was screened at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival.

Bjorlin was also cast as the female lead of the Chicago Pictures' feature film, Redline. Produced by her then fiancé, Daniel Sadek, who used his soon-to-fail subprime lending firm as his source of funding, the intent was to help Bjorlin break out of the soap opera scene. Bjorlin returned to Days of Our Lives in November 2007.

Since 2009, Bjorlin has starred as lesbian author Lara in the web series Venice: The Series.

In 2010, Bjorlin had a small role in NCIS as a suburban housewife wearing a bikini during a door-to-door canvasing by one of the NCIS investigators. That same year she guest starred on the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men as Evelyn Harper's (Holland Taylor) lesbian lover, Jill.

In 2011, Bjorlin was one of the stars of the reality television series Dirty Soap which gave viewers a behind-the-scenes view of Nadia's departure from Days of Our Lives, and afterward, including a bit of insight into the tenuous relationship between Nadia's live-in boyfriend and her mother who doesn't like him because she believes that he doesn't treat her well enough.

Bjorlin returned to her role on Days of Our Lives as Chloe for a two-episode stint on August 3, and 4, 2013, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the daytime serial

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